Steve Kolbe

Steve Kolbe

Assistant Professor
Area of Focus: Film and New Media

Steve Kolbe (Assistant Professor) is the latest faculty member to join the Film and New Media faculty in the Johnny Carson School of
Theatre and Film. His career in the television and film industry began when he interned on commercial shoots for an advertising
agency in Omaha, Nebraska. Graduating from the University of Kansas in 1994 with a degree in Journalism (focusing on Advertising and Graphic Design), Kolbe found
that he enjoyed the production and post-production processes of making commercials more than the advertising side of the projects. Steve
learned 3D modeling, texturing, and animation on his own as a freelancer in the Omaha market and soon joined the Omaha production company, North Sea Films, where he
evolved into an editor, compositor and 3D artist.

Moving to Dallas, TX to hone his 3D talents, he found his way onto the
Paramount Pictures film, Jimmy Neutron: Boy Genius, where he quickly became Head of the Layout Department. The film garnered an Academy
Award Nomination for best animated feature film in 2001. Following the success of the film, Kolbe stayed in Dallas and worked for several
years as Technical Director and Layout Director on the subsequent Jimmy Neutron television series. He moved to Los
Angeles to be the Layout Supervisor for the Paramount feature film, Barnyard. Moving back to Dallas, he advanced to be Assistant Director
for the direct-to-DVD series, Boz. It was this move that allowed Kolbe to transform into a CG and Digital Supervisor on a wide range of
movies, television shows and commercials. In 2010, Kolbe won an Emmy Award while serving as Technical Director for the Back at the Barnyard television
series for Nickelodeon.

He has supervised the creation of a large number of 3D procedure animations for Dental Technologies, Inc., MedVisor, and Henry Schien / Dentrix. He has worked on multiple commercial projects for Dreamworks films and was a Digital Supervisor on Kung Fu Panda: the Secrets of the Furious Five. Most recently, he is serving as VFX Supervisor on an independent film and directing a pair of animated short films. In addition to his teaching responsibilities at UNL, he continues to work as a Director, Producer, Digital Supervisor and consultant
for 3D animation studios.